42 Items for Your Thanksgiving Dinner Shopping List

[Updated on August 31, 2020] 42 items for your Thanksgiving dinner shopping list?  Are you sure?  Actually, when you look at my list below, you’ll see there are more than 42 things on the list!  I’ve lumped them together in small categories so that I could make the list an even 42!

In the Beginning…

If you are a new reader to my blog, welcome!  I create lists of 42 primarily to help people with their household inventory project.  Why 42?  To brand the “42” in the name of this blog, Toot Sweet 4 Two.  Why a household inventory project?  We lost our home in a wildfire in 2007 and I spent nine months doing our household inventory project for our insurance claim.  My hope for readers is that my lists will make an overwhelming task a bit easier by providing a one-stop source for their personal household inventory project.  More about this later…

Thanksgiving Dinner Shopping List

Americans tend to stick to tradition when it comes to Thanksgiving Dinner.  The first Thanksgiving Dinner, celebrated by the Pilgrims in 1621, included a myriad of dishes including wild turkey.  Since that time, Thanksgiving Dinner has symbolized a feast of platter after platter, bowl after serving bowl of fabulous side dishes with a turkey taking center stage.

And, let’s not forget dessert!

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Over the years, Thanksgiving Dinner in the United States has taken on regional and cultural nuances, a true melting pot of flavors.  But, in my family, whenever I attempt to veer from a traditional, classic menu, I’m sure to hear whining, like “why didn’t you make your Cornbread Stuffing?”

This is our classic Thanksgiving Dinner Menu:

I bet you’re thinking “wow, that’s a lot of food!”  Well, a little disclaimer here:  we don’t always make and eat everything on this list.  For example, we usually have dinner in mid-afternoon, so unless we veer from that tradition and have dinner in the evening, we don’t have my Effortlessly Easy Party Cheeseboard.  And, I don’t always make my One-Pot Autumn Harvest Creamy Pumpkin Soup.  But what is a given, and not negotiable, is my Mom’s Signature Foil-Wrapped Roasted Turkey and My Sister’s Famous Creamy Spinach Casserole.  If we don’t have those two Thanksgiving dishes as part of our Thanksgiving feast, well then, it isn’t Thanksgiving according to my family.

I don’t always make my Made-from-Scratch Perfect Turkey Giblet Gravy.  Giblets require a refined palate and are not usually kid-friendly.  More often than not I serve my It Must Be Thanksgiving Homemade Turkey Gravy.  And the other classic Thanksgiving dishes that are always on our Thanksgiving menu are my Nostalgic Back-of-the-Box Cornbread Stuffing with a Nutty Twist and my Country-Style Creamy Mashed Potatoes.

We grew up having jellied cranberry sauce from a can, but once I made Can’t Leave Alone Pineapple Habanero Cranberry Sauce, there was no going back!  Sometimes I make my Pucker-Up Sour Apple Cranberry Sauce just to see if they can tell the difference.  Somebody usually comments, but since it’s good, too, they don’t complain!

By the time I make all this Thanksgiving food, I’m tuckered out so I either buy both fresh or frozen apple and pumpkin pies from the grocery store.  And here are my thoughts on pre-made foods at holiday time (or any time):  we put too much pressure on ourselves as women and it’s okay to buy pre-made things!  Whatever makes your life a bit easier and whatever makes you happy!  Use a mix; take shortcuts!  Even if that means a turkey already fully-cooked and roasted or a stuffed turkey breast roll, that’s okay!

The Dynamics of the Classic American Thanksgiving Meal

Before we delve into the Thanksgiving dinner shopping list, let’s take a moment to analyze the ingredients is a traditional Thanksgiving meal.

Starting from the upper left of the photo above and moving clockwise, let’s analyze the ingredients needed to make this traditional Thanksgiving dinner:

1. Dinner rolls
2. Butter (no pictured, but usually served with dinner rolls)
3. Green beans
4. Mushrooms (in the green beans)
5. Red peppers (in the green beans)
6. Oil (for cooking the mushrooms and red peppers, and probably the green beans)
7. Spices (in the green beans)
8. Salt
9. Ground Black Pepper
10. Corn (could be fresh, canned or frozen)
11. Slice roasted turkey (butter or oil used to make the turkey, plus herbs and spices)
12. Something to stuff the turkey’s cavity while roasting so it doesn’t collapse (I use a combination of quartered apples and onions and celery)
13. Kitchen twine (to tie the turkey’s legs together)
14. Mashed potatoes (butter, to make them, is counted above with the dinner rolls)
15. Heavy cream or milk (to make the mashed potatoes)
16. Turkey gravy (homemade, canned or boxed)
17. Flour (to make the turkey gravy)
18. Stuffing or dressing (cornbread or bread needed to make it or a box mix plus ingredients needed to make stuffing included in the list above, such as spices, onions, apples, celery)
19. Nuts (for the stuffing; I put walnuts in my stuffing)
20. Chicken broth (for the stuffing and maybe for the turkey gravy)
21. Cranberry sauce (homemade or canned; if homemade, you need cranberries)
22. Sugar (for cranberry sauce)
23. Other ingredients for cranberry sauce (such as oranges, pineapple habanero sauce, etc.)
24. Fresh herbs for garnishes (in this photo, there’s a sprig of parsley on the mashed potatoes and a sprig of rosemary on the stuffing)

Twenty-four things and #12 – something to stuff the turkey’s cavity – is actually multiple items, so my grocery list just for this picture would total 26!  And, this photo doesn’t include dessert!

42 Items for Your Thanksgiving Dinner Shopping List

To help readers with their holiday preparations, I’ve created a shopping list for you!  Instead of you sitting down at your table, or standing in front of your refrigerator peering in at the contents, or rifling through your pantry trying to make a list from memory and figure out what you already have on-hand and what you need, this list will make the task easier.

Disclosure:  This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.  Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

Here are more than 42 Items for Your Thanksgiving Dinner Shopping List:

1. Turkey, ham, sausage, bacon
2. Butter, canola/vegetable oil, non-stick cooking spray
3. Kitchen twine
4. Herbs, spices, salt, pepper, vanilla extract
5. Flour, cornmeal, brown sugar, granulated sugar
6. Baking powder, baking soda, yeast
7. Turkey gravy, chicken broth
8. Dinner rolls, cornbread, biscuits
9. Honey, jams, jellies
10. Potatoes:  russet, Yukon gold, red
11. Eggs, milk, cream, half-and-half, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk
12. Cornbread stuffing or dressing mix
13. Fresh parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme
14. Celery, onions, carrots, mushrooms (fresh, frozen, or canned)
15. Peas, corn, green beans, asparagus (fresh, frozen, or canned)
16. Fresh or frozen chopped spinach
17. Green apples, red apples, oranges, lemons, other fruit
18. Yams or sweet potatoes
19. Salad greens & other vegetables
20. Cooking sherry, Marsala wine
21. Pie:  apple, pumpkin, mincemeat, pecan, sweet potato, chocolate cream, cherry
22. Whipped cream, Cool Whip
23. Ice cream, sherbet, gelato
24. Olives, pickles, pickled veggies
25. Crackers, bread crumbs, panko, cereal
26. Cranberries, cranberry sauce
27. Mayonnaise, mustard, Dijon mustard
28. Cream cheese, cheese
29. Cream of Mushroom soup, other cream soup
30. French fried onions
31. Mini marshmallows
32. Walnuts, pecans, chestnuts, pine nuts, almonds, other nuts
33. Rice:  long grain, wild, brown, grits
34. Vinegar:  red wine, balsamic, apple cider, white wine
35. Apple cider, sparkling apple cider
36. Wine, beer, other cocktails
37. Coffee, tea, other beverages
38. Coffee sweeteners and coffee creamers
39. Ice
40. Pumpkins, gourds, squash, Indian corn
41. Flowers and other Thanksgiving decor
42. Thanksgiving paper goods such as napkins and decorated plates

Guess what?  I’ve created a Printable Checklist Bundle just for you!  It includes the following:

• The five different lists that are shown in the photo above; why different, you wonder?  To give you choices!  Maybe you want to save printer ink and want a black and white version.  Or maybe you like the watercolor version because it’s calming.  Or maybe the doodle turkey and pumpkins make you smile!
• Three Thanksgiving-inspired blank lists so that you can make your own list.
• A pre-filled Thanksgiving menu listing the traditional classic Thanksgiving dishes plus a smaller version that you can print, cut out, and put at everyone’s place setting AND a blank menu so that you can create your own version.
• The cute turkey that’s part of the infographic – you know the one (scroll up!) that says “Happy Thanksgiving!  What’s for dinner?”
• Plus a cute bonus!  You’ll just have to subscribe to see what that bonus is – I think you’ll like it!  Look for the “Subscribe” box just below to get your freebie!

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Is grocery shopping a bit of a pickle for you right now?  As I update this post, we are in the throes of a pandemic and grocery shopping is a challenge for me.  I’m lucky in that I have a dear family member (thanks, Michelle!) who helps keep us stocked from our grocery store and a dear friend (thanks, Barbara!) who makes Costco runs.  But, I don’t want to impact them any more than necessary so I order online whenever possible, first.  Amazon is a source for me for boxed and canned items (they don’t have Amazon Fresh in my area) and I order fresh produce (as well as other things) from Farm Fresh to You (check out the ad banners that run in the sidebar).  With all of these different resources available to us, we are in good shape!

We lost our home just before Halloween.  I was having a Halloween party that weekend, so my house was decorated with all kinds of cute Halloween decorations, including bats hanging from the ceiling above the dining room table.  Anyway, the reason for sharing this tidbit with you is because natural disasters happen at any time of year and if they happen at Thanksgiving, chances are you’ve bought extra things for your celebration that you would not normally buy.  So, not only is this a Thanksgiving shopping list, it can, too, be a tickler for working on a household inventory project.

Are you working on your own home inventory project, whether for personal use or as the result of a homeowner’s insurance claim?  I’ve created an eBook to help you see it through.  The Complete Book of Lists: Room-by-Room Checklists for Your Household Inventory Project combines the 55 lists on this blog plus 20 new lists and rolls them up into one eBook with 75 different home inventory checklists – all for the low price of $9.99!  Or if you don’t need 75 lists rolled into one eBook, you can purchase separate one-page checklists for $0.99 each.

Will you do me a favor?  Would you share my post on social media?  The pinnable images scattered throughout this post are for your Pinterest boards so that you can bookmark this post and come back to it later.  Thanks for sharing!  Here’s a funny to brighten your day…

Tootles,

 

Related Posts from Toot Sweet 4 Two’s Archives:

Scratch-Made Turkey Soup for a Crowd

Gobble Up Crispy-Skinned Leftover Turkey and Rice Casserole

Homemade Depression-Era Crazy Chocolate Cake {aka Wacky Cake}

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